|
Work on a spectacular new Amazon attraction at the National Sea Life Centre has been sabotaged by five rioting otters. Contractors were busy creating a rainforest environment in a large indoor section of the otter enclosure when chaos erupted.
Otters on the run
Asian short-clawed-otters Berry, Mango, Kiwi, Apricot and Pumpkin had been kept outdoors, but when keeper Vicki Griffths tried to slip through the intervening door to feed them, they made their escape. "What followed was absolute anarchy," said Vicki. "They emptied jars of screws and scattered them all over, climbed the artificial trees and wrecked part-constructed branches and foliage, and even up-turned a couple of tins of green paint." The five mischievous otter sisters ignored all Vicki’s desperate attempts to distract them and usher them back outside. Tasty bribes
"They ran me ragged for about half-an-hour until I was joined by other members of staff and we finally managed, with the aid of tasty bribes, to get them under control again." Staff rallied round to clear the debris and eventually work started all over again to finish the new exotic rainforest effect.
"Happily they've finished it now and it looks fantastic,” said Vicki. "We've let the otters back in and they seem equally impressed, if not in the least shamefaced about the trouble they caused." AmaZonia The tropical facelift to the otter enclosure will help it blend in with a new AmaZonia feature launching in April 2006, featuring razor-toothed piranhas, electric eels and poison dart frogs. | 
